Last week it dawned on me why the kids weren't behaving as well, and why it seemed like I had too much to do and not enough time. The kids were bored and I was disorganized. Both stemmed from our general lack of a routine. Now we have always had a basic routine of our day, but since we started the alphabet days, where we had a much more structured day, the kids seem to respond much better to having that schedule of expectations. I of course do better when I have a plan, and time built in to the day to complete what I need to. So last week I did lesson plans, not too in depth, but a basic guide of what I wanted to accomplish each day. I am also using lessons from readinglessons.com, a fantastic free resource. I mapped out a basic daily schedule, and while I am not going to be rigid about it, it is nice having a plan and an idea of how I want my day to go. It also means that we plan time for our daily reading, our outside time, and Sesame Street. I know I will have an hour to do a lesson. I know I will have an hour to get dinner ready. It takes off a lot of stress. I even built in time for me to exercise. And I have to tell you that it really worked well today.
I got up at 6, exercised, did some yoga, had coffee with Rich, and had a bath all before the kids got up. We had breakfast, cleaned up, and did the first lesson. We watched Sesame Street, then went on the porch to play (since it was raining and we couldn't go in the yard.) We had lunch, then went upstairs to play with play dough. We read a Butterfly Alphabet Book, and the kids went down for a nap. And nap they did, they went right to sleep. Last couple of weeks nap time has been rough, crying, fussing, and no sleeping. Which of course led to some extremely cranky evenings. After they napped, which gave me time to fold 3 loads of laundry and diapers, we made a red poster. They love all the number and letter posters so we are starting color posters. On large piece of red construction paper we glued computer paper that the kids drew pictures on with red crayon. I wrote out names of things they told me that are red, and the word red. It looks pretty good. I also wrote a sentence telling what the kids drew. After that we did another mini lesson, and some free play time upstairs in the playroom while I put laundry away. When Rich got home he took them for a walk so CJ could use his new umbrella, and I got started on dinner, and some cleaning. The kids watched Animusic, while I got dinner ready, and we ate dinner at a reasonable time, got cleaned up and had some time to play with the kids before bath, stories and bed. The day ran really smoothly and we all got a lot accomplished with a minimum of fuss. It felt pretty great.
The first lesson today from readinglessons.com was all about listening, and involved sound patterns, identifying sounds, identifying missing sounds, and being a good listener. We sang Baa Baa Black Sheep, they had to tell me when I made a mistake. We sang Old MacDonald, and I would describe an animal for them to sing about. We had a couple of worksheets to go with it from the Kididdles website, that matched a number to a picture showing that many. They went with the songs, and the kids loved them and did great. The other mini lesson I did today was to introduce the kiddos to charts and graphs. Sid the Science Kid mentioned them and the kids seemed interested so I made a super simple chart and graphs showing the same information, involving the favorite colors of CJ, Eliza, Memere, Pepere, Mommy and Daddy. Two of us like red, two blue, one pink and one green. The kids already know this information so I was able to show them a bar graph, circle graph, and basic chart. While this is beyond what they need to know, I like to capitalize on anything they show interest in, and they enjoyed learning about them. It sets the stage for later on when it will make more sense. We hung the graphs and chart on our learning wall with everything else, so they will see them all the time.
This past weekend the kids slept over at Meme and Pepe's so that Daddy and I could go to a concert. They Might Be Giants was at Mohegan Sun, for free in the Wolf Den. One of my favorite bands ever. One of my favorite things about them is their focus on educational music that caters to adults and children. They do the music for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, among many other things. We bought the album Here Comes Science, which has a song about being a paleontologist, a song about what shooting stars are, and it goes on and on. We listened to it today, and once I explained that these people really aren't scary giants, no matter what they call themselves, the kids loved it! If you don't own any They Might Be Giants albums, you really should find one. Awesome!
So while we were organized today, it was still as chaotic as one would expect with a two year old and three year old as precocious as my two are. I really feel though that this new schedule and planning will benefit us all so much. Chaos is fine, as long as it has some purpose. Kids need some time to decide what to do, make choices, make mistakes, and just play as children should. But kids also need and want to be told what to do. They need to feel safe and taken care of, and to have clear expectations, and limits. Having a plan helps us all with creating clear expectations and it makes me feel more in control. It makes me feel like I am driving on this journey rather than just being along for the ride. And that is a great feeling.
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